The Washington Nationals plan to call up outfielder Dylan Crews, the No. 3 prospect in Major League Baseball, to make his debut Monday night against the New York Yankees, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Friday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.
The 22-year-old Crews was drafted No. 2 overall by Washington last summer — after his LSU teammate Paul Skenes was taken first by Pittsburgh — and quickly rose through the minor leagues.
Crews is batting .272 with 13 homers and 68 RBIs in 99 games this season for Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester.
He will join 21-year-old James Wood in Washington's young outfield. Wood debuted on July 1 for the rebuilding Nationals, who acquired him in the 2022 trade that sent Juan Soto to San Diego.
While not confirming the decision to recall Crews, Nationals manager Dave Martinez said before Friday night's game at Atlanta that he hoped to see the same consistency Crews had shown in college and the minors.
“He’s starting to hit the fastball a lot better. He’s taking his walks like he did in college. And he’s been playing unbelievable defense,” Martinez said.
Washington won the World Series in 2019 and has not had a winning season since. General manager Mike Rizzo traded away the core of that championship-winning roster, dealing Trea Turner and Max Scherzer in 2021 and Soto a year later.
The Nationals entered Friday at 58-70. They remained sellers at the trade deadline this season, sending outfielder Lane Thomas and reliever Hunter Harvey to contenders, and are emphasizing development of young players the rest of the year.
Rizzo said ahead of the deadline he was happy with the progress of the rebuild.
Crews could complete an impressive outfield for Washington alongside left fielder Wood and center fielder Jacob Young, an elite defender who has 29 stolen bases this season.
Since Thomas was dealt to Cleveland, Alex Call has received most of the starts in right field. The 29-year-old is batting .347 in 29 games, but Crews has bigger upside.
One of the best hitters in Division I when he and hard-throwing right-hander Skenes led LSU to the College World Series title last year, Crews was honored with the Golden Spikes Award as the nation's top amateur player. He received a $9 million bonus upon signing with Washington.
“He’s having a great year. He really is,” Martinez said. “He’s a big part of our future.”
Crews said at the All-Star Futures Game last month that he was looking forward to joining Skenes in the majors.
“Whenever that time comes, you know, I'll be ready,” he said.
AP freelancer Bill Trocchi in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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FILE - Washington Nationals Futures outfielder Dylan Crews (3) in action during an exhibition baseball game against the Washington Nationals, March 26, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
BOSTON (AP) — A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.
Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law — the theme of the night — and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.
“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an e-mail interview.
The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.
“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”
After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.
Then, the awards began — several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I'm bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy's Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.
The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people's heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone's hair in the Southern Hemisphere.
Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn't cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are cable of breathing through their anus — winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.
Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.
“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”
James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.
“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”
Professor James Liao displays a stuffed fish while accepting a prize for physics for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A team of researchers perform a demonstration during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel prize in physiology at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
People in the audience throw paper airplanes toward the stage during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
FILE - Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
